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Why didn't it succeed?

Concorde flights came to a screeching halt after only 27 years of operation on October 24, 2003. The reason? Excessive cost, high fares, and loud noise. On a regular flight, Concordes consumed 6,771 gallons of fuel, which quickly exceeded the profit made from the flight. In addition to that, only a total of 20 Concordes were built and no airline ordered them except for Air France and British Airways, who had to as they were state-run airlines at the time.

Oh, and a 2000 crash that killed everyone on board (109 people) and four people on the ground.

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[-] Delascas@feddit.uk 25 points 14 hours ago

Never have I felt as old online.

I flew on it . . twice. Round trip NYC - London and home a week later. BA obviously.

At altitude (60,000 feet) the sky was black, not blue. And for any flat-earth'ers out there . . sorry, but from 60,000 feet you could see the curvature of the earth.

The only interesting physical difference I remember was the difference in acceleration departing JFK vs. departing from Heathrow. Out of JFK you are instantly over the Atlantic, so it accelerated from 0 mph to Mach 2.0 in one continuous push. Whereas departing Heathrow, you are over land until the English channel. So it accelerated down the runway like any other plane, cruised until over water, then it felt like it was taking off a second time, with a much longer acceleration push.

[-] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 11 points 18 hours ago

My boss at the time, took one of the last flights on the Concord. I asked him if it was expensive, and he said he had to get back from Europe, and he figured he would never get another chance, so he wanted the adventure - and he could afford to pay for that sort of adventure.

[-] EldritchFeminity 20 points 21 hours ago

British Airways used to sell these really nice double-sided leather bomber jackets at events that were imprinted with the British Airways logo on the black leather side and the Concorde sown into the quilted side. The reason I know this is because somebody found one in a thrift store and gave it to me as a gift, and I did a lot of digging to find out where it came from as they never sold them in stores or anything, only at events. The leather was worn thin and torn even when I got it like 20 years ago, but the Concorde looks just as good as it ever did:

[-] ReiRose@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago

The crash was caused by part of the engine cowl from the previous flight (continental DC10) falling off and remaining on the runway

wiki

Whilst taking off from Charles de Gaulle Airport, Air France Flight 4590 ran over debris on the runway dropped by an aircraft during the preceding departure, causing a tyre to explode and disintegrate... five minutes before the Concorde departed, Continental Airlines Flight 55, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, took off from the same runway for Newark International Airport and lost a titanium alloy strip that was part of the engine cowl...Concorde ran over this piece of debris during its take-off...cutting the right-front tyre of its left main wheel bogie and sending a large chunk of tyre debris into the underside of the left wing... It did not directly puncture any of the fuel tanks, but it sent out a pressure shockwave that ruptured the number 5 fuel tank at its weakest point, just ahead of the left landing gear well.

[-] A_Chilean_Cyborg@feddit.cl 15 points 1 day ago

To expensive to operate, you needed a lot of fuel to flew few passengers faster, they decided regular airliners were fast enough.

[-] GenosseFlosse@feddit.org 9 points 21 hours ago

They needed 3x as much fuel as a 747 per passenger. The Concord was also banned from flying over cities because of the noise, this pretty much limited it to routes between east coast and Europe.

[-] AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago

But now, I wonder if supersonic flight could work today. We know a lot more now than we did when the first Concordes were built. There have been numerous advances in the fields of engineering, materials science, avionics, and such since the last Concorde jet was grounded.

[-] GenosseFlosse@feddit.org 2 points 4 hours ago

No. Going slower will always use less energy than going fast. You cannot cheat physics.

[-] exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 11 hours ago

Boom Supersonic is a private company working on it, with an eye towards better fuel efficiency than the Concorde. They're still in the early stages, though, so who knows if they'll actually be able to finish a design, much less manufacture a working model.

And NASA has been doing some research on sonic boom characteristics, to see if a plane can be designed to fly faster than the speed of sound without causing a sonic boom.

[-] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago

In the field of aviation there have been almost no innovations except better electronics and manufacturing techniques.

All old principles still hold. Going faster requires a ton more energy.

[-] sanimalp@lemmy.world 5 points 18 hours ago

Boom supersonic is trying to bring supersonic passenger flight back. They have a test bed prototype that flies out of a Colorado airport. But last I heard they were in big trouble without an engine supplier.

[-] tgirlschierke 53 points 1 day ago

One of today's lucky 10000.

[-] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

I also think it's the younger folks who may not know what older folks already knew. OP was maybe too young to remember about Concorde.

[-] bytesonbike@discuss.online 5 points 14 hours ago

Im nearing 40 and never knew about it because:

  1. Never had an interest in flying to Europe until recently
  2. Age is making me delete memories to store new ones
[-] sheogorath@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Probably, I still remember my physics teacher using the Concorde as part of a quiz.

[-] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 161 points 1 day ago

No post on here has ever made me feel older. Just the thought that somebody might not know about Concorde because it's so far in the past makes me want to hide in a closet.

[-] FinishingDutch@lemmy.world 6 points 19 hours ago

I know, right? That was such a staple of aviation in general. Everybody knew about Concorde, just like how everyone can immediately recognise a Boeing 747. Maybe in thirty years time, some young’in will post about ‘I learned about an aircraft called a 747.’

Concorde was such an icon, they even made an entire disaster movie featuring it, Airport ‘79:

https://youtu.be/BdwoWbBduxw

Not so fun fact: the aircraft used in the movie, F-BTSC, was also the actual Concorde that crashed in 2000, ultimately killing the type.

[-] RattlerSix@lemmy.world 45 points 1 day ago

There are people having children right now who weren't born yet when Borat came out

[-] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

There are people who still do not know Borat was not real but staged and the actor Sasha Baron Cohens parents were some of the earlier Zionist colonists. His life work is spreading Islamophobia and promoting Israel.

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[-] suigenerix@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago

IKR. I was in a costume hire shop a few years ago and asked the shop lady (age late ~20s), "do you have a Zorro costume?" She asked me, "What's a Zorro?" Faaark I'm officially old!

True story. Antonio Banderas then ran into the store, yelled "Oi!" and stormed out.

[-] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago

Let's have a few brewskis on the porch and yell at kids to get off our lawn.

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[-] Lexam@lemmy.world 255 points 1 day ago

Aw the Concord is a TIL now. They were really cool looking.

[-] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 53 points 1 day ago

I loved how they looked down like a bird while landing.

[-] RandomStickman@fedia.io 55 points 1 day ago
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[-] Skua@kbin.earth 34 points 1 day ago

It's a very graceful machine that just happens to also sound like a volcano erupting

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[-] Skua@kbin.earth 106 points 1 day ago

A fun fact about Concorde: there is one aerial photo of one of them flying at supersonic speeds, and the fighter jet that the photo was taken from could barely keep up long enough to take it. Here's the pic.

The image was taken by Adrian Meredith who was flying a Royal Air Force (RAF) Tornado jet during a rendezvous with the Concorde over the Irish Sea in April 1985. Although the Tornado could match Concorde’s cruising speed it could only do so for a matter of minutes due to the enormous rate of fuel consumption. Several attempts were made to take the photo, and eventually the Concorde had to slow down from Mach 2 to Mach 1.5-1.6 so that the Tornado crew could get the shot. The Tornado was stripped of everything to get it up to that speed as long as possible.

https://theaviationgeekclub.com/heres-the-only-picture-of-concorde-flying-at-supersonic-speed/

[-] ParadoxSeahorse@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Supersonic temperature giving it that extra sexy length

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[-] MrSmith@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago

And dumbass musk and his followers said we'll use rockets for intercontinental flights.

[-] chrisbtoo@lemmy.ca 49 points 1 day ago

Thanks to Concorde, Phil Collins was able to play at both the London and Philadelphia Live Aid concerts. He Played in London, got a helicopter to Heathrow, Concorde to NY and then another helicopter to Philadelphia.

[-] ParadoxSeahorse@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

As well as his own set at both venues, he also played the piano for Sting in London, then drums for Eric Clapton, and played with the reuniting surviving members of Led Zeppelin at JFK. On the Concorde flight, Collins encountered actress and singer Cher and told her about the concerts. Upon reaching the US, she attended the Philadelphia concert and can be seen performing as part of the concert's "We Are the World" finale.

Love Cher just chilling on Concorde, might go to a gig

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[-] pelya@lemmy.world 55 points 1 day ago

Time savings in today's economics would be completely negated by waiting two hours in line at the airport.

[-] makeshiftreaper@lemmy.world 49 points 1 day ago

If you're paying that much to fly you're not waiting in regular security

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[-] dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 30 points 1 day ago

I remember fantasizing about flying in that thing when I was a kid. Not because it was a super luxury flight, only because it was supersonic. I was sad the day they mothballed it.

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[-] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

When flying supersonic the entire plane would expand and get longer to the point where flight engineer could put his hat between his console and bulkhead.

However, when it slowed down and cooled the engineer had to remember to get his hat or it would be stuck in the shrunken space.

The Concorde on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center had this happen, and it has a hat permanently stuck in the cockpit.

(At least according to the tour guide.)

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[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Too old, too expensive.

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this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2025
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